Cleveland radio station will no longer play 'manipulative' Christmas song 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'
If you live in Cleveland and want to hear the old Christmas tune "Baby, It's Cold Outside," don't turn the station to WDOK-FM.
Last week, WDOK midday host Glenn Anderson wrote a blog post explaining why the station will no longer be playing the song. "Now, I do realize that when the song was written in 1944, it was a different time, but now while reading it, it seems very manipulative and wrong," Anderson said.
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" goes back and forth between two singers — one is the host (traditionally a man), the other his guest (typically a woman). It was made famous in the 1949 movie Neptune's Daughter, performed by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban, and includes lyrics like "What's in this drink?" Throughout the song, the host also pressures the guest to stay inside rather than go home. Anderson takes issue with all of this, writing: "The world we live in is extra sensitive now, people get easily offended, but in a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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